More than 40 planes in Israeli multi faceted air maneuver over Crete

A combined multi-day air force exercise with a Greek dimension was carried out by the Israeli Air Force last week.

According to the Times of Israel website in preparation for the Israeli Air Force to deal with multiple threats at the same time from three different regions, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon (see Hezbollah) and Syria, 40 F-15 and F- 16 fighters from 10 squadrons and an unknown number of airfreight and transport aircraft, made a flight to Greece last Sunday.

The aircraft flew over Crete and more specifically above the Souda air base as shown in one of the photos published by the Israeli Air Force.

According to the Israelis, fighter aircraft and other escorts flew to Greece in order to carry out a precision mission under difficult conditions in an area unknown to the Israeli Air Force.

In total, for the Greek section of the exercise, two sorties were undertaken by the more than 40 Israeli aircraft, which, without stopping at an intermediate station, flew directly to Greece, carrying out continuous in-flight refueling.

The exercise included the use of hundreds of fighters, aircraft, transport, flying tankers, helicopters, in daytime and night with flights to different areas at the same time.

These Israeli airplanes flew above the Eastern Mediterranean and above the Gaza Strip to maximize the realism of a future operation where Israel will need to fight on multiple fronts.

This particular exercise, or rather the Greek part of this exercise, proves that Israel's only allies in the region are Greece and Cyprus, and this particular relationship Israel is trying to make the most of to train its forces. The point is that in a bilateral relationship the benefits should be reciprocal.

When the Turks offered the Israelis equivalent facilities, Israelis repaid the Turks by providing assistance in the fields of military technology, information, promoting Turkish interests in the US and Europe, and even secret missions to Turkey.